Mailorder merchants that ship Japanese goods worldwide

Mailorder sources

Sites that I've tried myself are marked with a (maki).

General stores

These mailorder stores carry a wide variety of products, edible and otherwise.

J-List: Food is limited to snacks and so on. Also carries lots of bento supplies, dinnerware, utensils, cookbooks. Carries a lot of NSFW products (mainly manga, anime of a hentai bent) but has age check. (To go directly to the SFW section without the hentai DVDs and such, go to JBox.com - same company, PG rated.) Prompt service, website is a bit cumbersome, but a big selection of things to browse through. (Note that Just Hungry is a J-List affiliate; by clicking on the link to make your purchases you help to support the site at no cost to you.) (maki)

Japan Centre: food only within Europe, but equipment and books worldwide. Very prompt service, easy to use website. (maki)

Japonmania is a site in French and English. They list several bento boxes and such.

Katagiri: Their web site states they ship worldwide, though I suspect that policy applies to the non-edible housewares. They do ship food all over the U.S.

Overseas shipping services

These companies act as your 'friend who lives in Japan', for a fee of course. You have things shipped to them from merchants who don't ship overseas, which they will then send it to you. The commission is usually around 10%, but it pays to compare their service fee structures (some require a flat service fee on top of the percentage.)

The following 3 services frequently offer 3,000 yen off if you purchase more than a certain amount from Rakuten and some other shopping sites.

Tenso may be the biggest shipping service. Their web site is in English, Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese. They charge a 10% fee for receiving and shipping your package to you. They can also consolidate multiple package for you before shipping them out to you, for an additional fee. Comments: I've used them a couple of times, and they are fairly reliable, although they are very slow sometimes responding to questions. (maki)

Goyokikiya is my packing shipping service of choice at the moment. However, they don't seem to have an English explanation page - although they do have an English login option. They are very fast, respond to questions in a timely manner, and don't charge extra for consolidating packages. (maki)

Baggage Forward Com is a service based in Osaka. They charge similar fees to the two above. Because they are based in Osaka, their packages tend to leave a day or so later than the ones leaving from Narita, in my experience.

DankeDanke (English and Japanese site) Comments: "I have used dankedanke a couple of times, with no problems. Shipping was very fast." -(anon.)

i-TM4u (English only site), but their blog (English) makes me think they are Japanese. Note: as of November 2014 they seem to be out of business? Comments: "I use i-tm4u for anything I want to buy from Japan, especially when the company does not ship OS. I've bought a few Bento boxes as well as other non Bento items through them and they have always been well packaged and arrive quickly. Their commission is low and shipping is very reasonable." -(Becki)

"Today i received my work-of-art lunchbox and can say that i-TM4U [...] is a very good and reliable shopping agent. It is very difficult to communicate with Japanese companies in English so i was glad to rely on their help with payment, shipping etc. i-TM4U was very accurate with all the info, the box was very well packed as i asked and the pricing is reasonable, too." -(Anna from Russia)

Comments

Hi,
I love your blog! I just found your page this morning for the first time.
I would like to be included as a Shopping Source on your site. We are the largest importer of Traditional Japanese Foods & Cookware and ship worldwide!
Please visit our website at: www.naturalimport.com
We also offer delicious recipes, Japanese Beauty Secrets, Japanese Traditional Home Remedies and more...
Thank you for your consideration.
Crystal Macdonald,
General Manager,
Natural Import Company
PS-Customers can fax or email us their orders in English or Japanese using our pre-printed order form. We will have shopping online in Japanese in 2009. We carry over 300 products.

I had trouble finding a just (or almost just) Japanese food store. I did discover a store in Los Angeles called Japan Super that ships overnight for perishables for a reasonable rate. I just ordered mouchi and noodles.

I'm trying to find Japanese towels normally used in Japan's public baths. They're about 11" x 36" cloth towels. Fairly thin materials, not terry-cloth. I'm sure they're sold at a large Japanese grocery/dry goods store in LA county @ the corner of Western AVE & the street connecting with I-5 South. It's not Nijiya. Can anyone tell me the name/address of this store and if it has a web site? Thanks for the help.

Hello Larry
I can't help you with the name of the store, but I can tell you that these towels are called tenugui.
There are an incredibly wide range of these available (as well as hundreds of ways to use or wear them!)
If you enter"tenugui" into a search engine you can find lots of places that sell them online, many located in the US.
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Just to add to this particular article...
Two places for quality Japanese products are:
-
Workshop ISSé http://www.workshop-isse.fr/acheter-en-ligne/
(reviewed by Maki here: http://www.justhungry.com/workshop-isse-paris )
&
Postcard Teas http://www.postcardteas.com/tea/green
Small but pretty much perfect selection of green (and other) teas and no mark up on delivery* - teas are sent economically at cost, so good prices worldwide. One of the few places that will tell you exactly where your tea comes from.
(*An example of where the delivery charges are vicious is this tea shop located in Paris http://en.jugetsudo.fr/catalog-2.html )

Just want to say that I have some things from Japan on my website. Mostly for Green Tea lovers but I have some Coffee that I get from the local supermarket and ship as a "service". I have no problem with shipping anywhere in the world. Have a look if you would like.

We would love to ship world-wide. However, due to all of the trade restrictions, FDA, customs clearance, red tape, documentation, transort restrictions (not to mention the outrageous cost of shipping, these days), plus numerous other problems that we have tried to deal with, makes it impossible for those of us that are conducting business in a legal manner.

Also, when major US shipping companies have difficulty getting a package overnight, just within the USA, we can not trust them to get packages world-wide. Aside from the fact that most people are not willing to pay a shipping cost that may be more than what the product costs.

It is true facts that the amount that we pay for food items that is shipped within the country and from outside the country are almost same. But I am really worried about the nutritious value of these food items and how healthy they are for our body. Anyways, thanks for the share. windows8-problems.com

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